About

Photoshop Bob Ross is a photoshop meme using an image template of the celebrity painter standing in front of a blank canvas. Taken from a promotional photograph for his instructional television program The Joy of Painting, it is most often used as an exploitable to frame various images in the blank canvas as if they were drawn by Ross.

Origin

In January 2002, Something Awful announced a photoshop contest against rival site Fark.com[9] with the topic “TV Shows That Would Never Be Made.” One of the Something Awful submissions[10] entered by user The Yellow Yell was entitled “The Joy Of Furries,” depicting Bob Ross drawing a humanlike animal laying in a provocative position.

The base photo (shown left above) is considered the most well-known image[3] of the late artist; it has appeared on his estate’s website[7] as well as various merchandise relating to his television series including DVDs[4], books[5] and painting kits.[6]

Spread

On September 17th, 2004, a challenge titled “Photoshop Bob Ross”[1] was posted on the British digital art community b3ta.[2] Within the first 24 hours of the challenge, over 11 pages worth of images were posted. Similar photoshopped images appeared on Fark.com[8] as early as January 13th, 2007.

In 2009, the exploitable was used in photoshop contests on Something Awful twice[11][12] as well as on the Facepunch forums.[13] A gallery of these images was posted to Unreality Magazine[14] in August of that year. In 2010, another Bob Ross photoshop thread took place on the Newgrounds forums.[15] A photo gallery was posted to eBaum’s World[17] in April 2012. More images can be found on Tumblr with the tag Bob Ross.[16]

Notable Examples

The Artist

Bob Ross (1942 – 1995) was an American painter best known for his instructional television show The Joy of Painting, which aired on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations from January 1983 to May 1994. In the half-hour segments, Ross taught oil painting with simple steps so anyone could follow along. Prior to his painting career, the Florida-raised Ross was a member of the United States Air Force which brought him to Alaska, inspiring the first snow and mountains that would become a theme in his artwork. He was known for several catchphrases coined on his show, including “happy little trees” and “there are no mistakes, only happy accidents.”[18]

Video Parodies

In addition to the photoshop meme, there are several video parodies and tributes to Ross’ show, The Joy of Painting. This can be attributed to the show’s continued syndication on public access television networks.